DEMON CHICK: A YA novel with laughs

I just read Demon Chick, a paranormal young adult novel written by Marilyn Kaye (Sept. 2009), in which 16-year-old narrator Jessica Hunsucker is snatched by a demon and transported to hell. Why is she taken? Because 16 years earlier her mother, an aspiring politician, “made a deal with the devil”: mother’s successful political career in exchange for her daughter’s eternity.

The book is entertaining but thin and so-so. Jessica never really balks at being in hell or seethes about her mother’s assholeness, so I wasn’t convinced she was real. And then she decides, for no reason apparent to me, to stay in hell, rather than remain on Earth after she’s given the opportunity to do so. (I guess being cared about by a demon in hell is better than being cared about by no one on Earth.)

What I liked about Demon Chick is Jessica’s hell: life on Earth minus choices. The only books to which she has access are Functions of Photosynthesis; Renal Failure in Sedentary Populations; Dictionary of Legal Terminology; and Cholesterol-Free Cooking―not too thrilling for a 16 year old. And the only television programming is realty shows, not scripted reality shows, either. Looking in on a rock musician preparing to use the toilet, Madonna sleeping, and other stuff like this. And then there are fast-food restaurants, which Jessica doesn’t think are hellish; her demon says they’re foodies’ torture.